Discuss the role played by the protagonist in The Black Hermit.

In Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo's play The Black Hermit, the protagonist, Remi, encapsulates the conflict between tribal, traditional culture on the one hand and Westernized, then-contemporary culture on the other. Remi is also a symbol of chosenness, as he has been privileged enough to receive a college education and is regarded by his tribe as "the green seed." But when we first meet Remi, he is living in the city and has no desire to go back home, even though he thinks often of home. Tribal elders and a Christian priest visit him and convince him to return home.
Remi's state of being torn between two worlds represents the conflict between individualistic urban culture and tribal culture, with its focus on the family and the group over and against the individual. The individual who cuts himself off from tradition is the "hermit" of the play's title. Remi's return home is deeply ambivalent and ultimately tragic, as his incapacity to assume his role as husband to Thoni results in her death. The implicit suggestion is that neglect of the human needs of others to whom one has obligations is a moral problem much worse than indifference to tradition as such.